As others have said, you will want to talk to a CPA about how your books are set up. I'll share how I have mine set up.
I also have a sole proprietorship/LLC with its own EIN. That entity has its own set of books in GNUCash. The LLC has its own bank accounts and credit cards. The preferred way of entering expenses is through the vendor and customer interfaces. As also mentioned, GNC doesn't really do payroll, but you could set it up to enter the amounts. I would set up each employee as a vendor in GNC and then for each payroll copy the values from your payroll service. For rentals, they also had their own account (under its EIN). You would receive the rents/other income into the biz account, pay the bills out, and then take draws (against the equity account) when you take funds out back to your personal accounts. When you close the books at the end of the year, you would close out to Retained Earnings. GNC would create a Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow statement which your CPA would use to populate the Schedule C on your personal return. On your personal books, you could represent the value of your SPP as an Asset account (Assetts:MyOwnLLC) and adjust it's value to match the equity amount on the balance sheet to reflect your net worth. Hope that helps. On Sat, 2024-03-09 at 15:10 -0800, timothyscu...@yahoo.com wrote: > I started down the path of setting up accounts payable to hold the > bills that my sole proprietorship sends to me which I then pay. I > created a first bill, assigning the line items to various expense > accounts in my personal books, which is where I want those line items > to be allocated. I'm apparently running into a problem where GNU cash > insists on having the complete business system set up before you can > use any part of it. And then it seems to be set up assuming that the > business accounts are all for the business and are completely > separate from my personal accounts. I tried to put liabilities and > accounts payable under my personal equity account and then tried to > post my first bill to accounts payable but the gnucash wouldn't let > me do that. It wouldn't let me choose any existing account it wanted > me to create a new one. When I created a new account under accounts > payable then the account type field was unavailable. I was not able > to select any account type for the accounts payable subaccount. So > I'm apparently trying to pervert the design that was intended by the > authors of good gnucash. > > My first dumb question as if I set up a separate set of books for my > business to hold the accounts receivable for the business which will > consist of its bills to me, that I don't see how I can assign the > line items in that bill to accounts in my personal books which was > the whole point of the exercise from my point of view. > > I was hoping there was a way I could set up accounts payable that > would hold bills inside my personal books with line items that > referred to expense accounts in my personal books. Is there a way to > do that and I'm I just not seeing it? > > Tim > > From: timothyscu...@yahoo.com <timothyscu...@yahoo.com> > Sent: Tuesday, March 5, 2024 6:52 AM > To: 'Alan Johnson' <a...@argentwolf.org>; 'David Carlson' > <david.carlson....@gmail.com> > Cc: 'gnucash-user' <gnucash-u...@lists.gnucash.org> > Subject: RE: [GNC] split transaction description field length limit > > Yes that's why I set up a sole proprietorship with employer ID so I > can pay all the payroll taxes, deduct income tax and pay it to the > government, pay unemployment, Worker's Comp. insurance etc. I agree > with you that it's very important to do those things properly. > > I'm using gnucash mostly for my personal books as opposed to the sole > proprietorship books which are so simple that we’re doing them in a > spreadsheet right now with the exception of the payroll software we > use to try to make sure we get all the deductions right. > > My sole proprietorship invoices me for the fully burdened cost of > each month’s payroll and I reimburse it fully from my personal bank > account into the sole proprietorship bank account. It sounds as > though my solution will be to set up AR for my sole proprietorship > and enter all of the line items into an invoice to myself personally. > Up until now I'd been using a simple paper invoice. > > Thank you so much for the suggestion. > > Tim > > From: Alan Johnson <a...@argentwolf.org> > Sent: Monday, March 4, 2024 11:01 AM > To: timothyscu...@yahoo.com; 'David Carlson' > <david.carlson....@gmail.com> > Cc: 'gnucash-user' <gnucash-u...@lists.gnucash.org> > Subject: Re: [GNC] split transaction description field length limit > > I use GNUCash for tracking rental properties as well. You can create > as many expense accounts to track to whatever level of detail is > needed. > > For example, I have my structure set up as: > Expenses: > Overall R&M > -Property 1 R&M > --Property 1 HVAC > --Property1 General > --Property 1 Electrical > --etc > > -Property 2 R&M > --Property 2 HVAC > --Property 2 General > --Property 2 Electrical > --etc > > When you run a P&L at the end of the year, it will break out how much > was in each expense category, as well as a total for each property. > > Not a CPA or legal advice, but I understand that if you are paying > payroll to employees, you still need to pay payroll tax unless they > are their own business/1099, in which they should be paying their > taxes accordingly. > > You can assign as many line items and expense accounts/line items to > the invoices as you need. That's their intended function. You can > also pay line items into an asset or liability account (such as > witheld taxes). > > Your handyman should provide you with a bill (or a work order). > > - Fixed property 1's toilet. 1 hr@ $x > > You create a vendor in the vendor system (Handyman LLC) > Create an invoice > Line item - Toilet repair $x Account: Expenses:Property1 > R&M:Property1 Plumbing > Line Item - Outlet repair $y Account: Expenses:Property1 > R&M:Property1 Electrical > Line Item - Door knob repair $z Account: Expenses: Property2 R&M: > Property2:General > Total $A > - Post invoice > > Vendors -> Process Payment > > Pay Handyman LLC $A from Assets:RentalCheckingAccount with check > 1234 > > > On Mon, 2024-03-04 at 09:46 -0800, timothyscu...@yahoo.com wrote: > > I greatly appreciate your suggestions. > > > > I don't think I framed the problem completely. I have several > > rental properties and before I migrated to GNU cash I was using > > Quicken to generate “itemized spending” reports from which I could > > fill out schedule E for each property. When I tried to do the same > > thing with GNU cash for the transactions associated with, for > > example maintenance on property 1 or repairs on property 2 I did > > get a list of transactions but the descriptions of them were so > > truncated that it wasn't practical for me to verify the correctness > > of them the way I used to be able to do by just looking down the > > column of transactions. > > > > I have a tiny sole proprietorship which runs a payroll to pay my > > part-time handyman and a part-time bookkeeper to avoid nanny tax > > and Worker's Comp. problems but my sole proprietorship's income is > > just reimbursements from me as an individual. > > > > If I were to pervert the gnucash vendor bill payment system to > > detail the work my part-time employees do, would I be able to > > assign line items on an invoice to different GNU cash expense > > accounts associated with the different properties people worked on? > > And would reports generated by GNU cash be able to list the detail > > for the line items? That's my ultimate goal. I want to be able to > > generate reports from the gnucash for each calendar year, which > > also happens to be my tax year, so I can use that information to > > fill out schedule E for each rental property. I'm comfortable with > > doing that manually but I have been spoiled by having reports from > > Quicken that provide the detail associated with each expense > > account in a form that's easy to double check. > > > > Thank you again for trying to help with my problem. > > > > Tim > > > > From: Alan Johnson <a...@argentwolf.org> > > Sent: Monday, March 4, 2024 7:43 AM > > To: David Carlson <david.carlson....@gmail.com> > > Cc: timothyscu...@yahoo.com; gnucash-user > > <gnucash-u...@lists.gnucash.org> > > Subject: Re: [GNC] split transaction description field length limit > > > > You don't have to have 'a business' to use the business features. > > You would need to set up an AP and AR account to post the invoices > > to. To me, the vendor bill - payment system is the proper way to > > store the data, rather than kludging the memo fields. Here is an > > example of a Costco receipt entered as a bill, then paid with a > > credit card through the vendor-payments section. > > > > I think that this would be the best way to handle the handyman > > payments as requested and job tracking (create various expense > > accounts). It would also allow for multiple types of payments - > > e.g. check, credit card, cash all on the same bill if needed. > > > > On Sun, 2024-03-03 at 21:41 -0600, David Carlson wrote: > > > Whatever the actual character count limit is for the memo field > > > in a transaction line, I have found the practical limit is what > > > can be printed in reports that show that field. On the computer > > > screen you cannot directly see anything that is after a linefeed > > > character unless you scroll past that character since the > > > 'window' is one line tall. > > > > > > I do not use business features so I don't have invoices or > > > vendors. Another possibility would be to use spreadsheets and > > > refer to them in the document link field. I don't remember if > > > that is associated with individual lines or to the entire > > > transaction. > > > > > > > > > > > > On Sun, Mar 3, 2024 at 9:13 PM Alan Johnson via gnucash-user > > > <gnucash-user@gnucash.org> wrote: > > > > I suggest you put your handyman in as a vendor. Then you can > > > > create a bill with long descriptions per item, and then pay the > > > > bill with a check. If you want to see what was paid, right > > > > click on the payment entry in the register and choose jump to > > > > invoice/bill. You can also run a vendor report. > > > > > > > > Mar 3, 2024 18:39:49 Tim via gnucash-user > > > > <gnucash-user@gnucash.org>: > > > > > > > > > The descriptions that I enter in GNU cash for split items get > > > > truncated. Is > > > > > there a way to change this or is this a hard limit? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > To provide some context, I pay a handyman to work on various > > > > projects. When > > > > > I write the check to pay him I split the amount among the > > > > various projects > > > > > (which correspond to line items on his timesheet)that he > > > > worked on to > > > > > allocated it to the different expense accounts associated > > > > with those > > > > > projects. I like to enter a fairly long description which > > > > includes things > > > > > like the date the work was done, the location, and a brief > > > > description of > > > > > what was done but GNU cash truncates it when producing > > > > reports or when I go > > > > > back and look at data that I entered earlier. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Should I be setting up an account for the handyman in which > > > > the line items > > > > > of his timesheet would be entered as individual transactions > > > > which add up to > > > > > the amount he gets paid? I get the impression that I'm > > > > probably trying to > > > > > misuse GNU cash again as I was when I paid my credit card > > > > bills with long > > > > > split transactions. I was able to fix that by entering the > > > > transactions in > > > > > an account for the credit card and then having a single > > > > transaction from my > > > > > bank account to pay off the credit card. I'm not adept enough > > > > at accounting, > > > > > to put it mildly, to know if there's something analogous I > > > > should be doing > > > > > in this case. Can you explain it in a way that a newbie would > > > > understand? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thank you > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > gnucash-user mailing list > > > > > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > > > > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > > > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > > > > > ----- > > > > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > > > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > gnucash-user mailing list > > > > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > > > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > > > > ----- > > > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > > > > > > > > -- > > > David Carlson
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